Edit: Good point by cellis below. Still, I think legalizing activities via connected interests is progress compared to fake illegalizing that exists currently.
Side note: I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. I mean if someone's going to profit off the misery and suffering of addicts, it might as well be their fellow countrymen.
EDIT: re:"it was only banned" : I know it was technically illegal, however I suspect that wouldn't have been an issue if it was a field dominated by american companies.
As a side note, I hope this continues to move forward. I would gladly pay taxes on my poker winnings and receive checks from legitimate banks as opposed to the KBG Bank of Canada (or something like that) where I used to get my checks from in the past.
Taxes have to be collected and money laundering legislation must be enforceable -
not to mention all the "protective" internet legislation you guys seem to be getting recently...
...!
"Until now, the department held that online gambling in all forms was illegal under the Wire Act of 1961, which bars wagers via telecommunications that cross state lines or international borders.
The new interpretation, by the department's Office of Legal Counsel, said the Wire Act applies only to bets on a "sporting event or contest," not to a state's use of the Internet to sell lottery tickets to adults within its borders or abroad."
- basically, they restricted the interpretation of the Wire Act to be specific to sports gambling, and nothing else (such as poker)
Step 2: Make gambling legal and tax
Step 3: Profit
The brick and mortar casinos will be the first candidates to get licenses to run real money sites regardless, and guys like myself will have to pull some strings to get our little platforms into the market. But hey, there's always the Zynga poker business model (sell X play chips for $Y; no prizes for winning aside from being able to play in "high stakes" play money games) to tide us over until then.
The first decade of the twenty-first century was the "wild west" of online poker. A number of times I've had my bankrolls on various sites disappear as they shut down and run with the money- similar to getting robbed at gunpoint in a high stakes showdown in the days of the Texas road gamblers, or Mississippi riverboat poker games. We're headed for a safe, regulated form of the American pastime, and although it will likely be taxed viciously, there is a very good chance that we'll see another poker boom like that started when Chris Moneymaker won the main event of the 2003 World Series of Poker.
For further reading from the online poker media:
http://pokerfuse.com/news/law-legislation/department-justice...
http://craakker.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-doj-wire-act-opinio...
